The Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey was published in 1942 by the Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project of the Works Progress Administration of Illinois. The purpose of the project was to translate and classify selected news articles that appeared in the foreign language press from 1855 to 1938. The project consists of 120,000 typewritten pages translated from newspapers of 22 different foreign language communities of Chicago.

Dziennik Chicagoski --
September 29, 1891

Is it Possible? (Editorial)

In the issue for September 26 of this year of Ameryka--a journal well-known for the publishing of deliberate falsehoods--we read an extensive account of the convention of the Polish National Alliance, which was held in Detroit, Michigan. One of the paragraphs in this article reads as follows:

"A resolution was adopted to condemn the following Polish newspapers: Wiarus, Polak W Ameryce, Wiara I Ojczyzna, and Dziennik Chicagoski. The editors of these newspapers were accused of dishonesty and branded as outcasts."

Is it possible that such a public resolution was adopted by the convention of the Polish National Alliance? We will admit that a certain organization may not like the policy of a particular newspaper; we will also admit that such an organization may even, in its private meetings, condemn that newspaper, but to 2accuse the editors publicly of dishonesty or brand them as outcasts at a convention about which even other nationalities talk and write, just because they are exponents of different ideas, would be taking a great responsibility. It would, in fact, be disgraceful.

We did not believe that the paragraph which we read was true. In order to verify it, we made a private investigation by asking some delegates to the convention whether these reports were true. All delegates whom we asked categorically denied that the second part of the above-mentioned paragraph was true; besides, all of them asserted that Dziennik Chicagoski was not even mentioned at the convention. Others stated, in addition, that the resolution against Wiara I Ojczyzna (Faith and Country) was not adopted.

At any rate, this curious item was published in Ameryka, and as long as there is no official denial, we will not know whether it is true or not. If it is not true, we expect official retraction. We would like to know and we must know whether the Polish National Alliance takes the responsibility for such 3a resolution or whether Ameryka is guilty of misrepresentation of the facts.

Ameryka also states that W. Prybeski was elected censor, and Rewerski assistant censor, of the Polish National Alliance, and H. Nagiel, was chosen as editor of Zgoda.

Finally, we demand that the publishers of Ameryka disclose, according to the permission given them, the name of the correspondent who "can prove" that there is no dependable Polish school in Chicago; that the teachers in Polish parochial schools do not know how to write Polish and yet teach it to others; that the Catholic Church forbids sending children to American public schools, on account of which the Poles are afraid to educate their children; that if any Pole sends his children to a high school and wishes to prepare them to become decent citizens, he is immediately condemned publicly by the priests from the pulpits, and is ostracized by the other Poles; that our priests commit crimes mentioned by the correspondent, and so on.